Combined Bachelor's/Master's Degree

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​The combined Bachelor's/Master's degree programs allow students to complete 12 graduate credit hours while still undergraduates. These three graduate level courses will count toward both the undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

​The following Communication graduate programs have been approved as combined degree options:

• Health Communication (MA)

• Journalism (MA)

• Media Cinema Studies (MA)

• Organizational and Multicultural Communication (MA)

• Relational Communication (MA)

Health Communication (MA)

Students with junior status who have earned a 3.5 GPA in their major courses, have a 3.0 cumulative GPA, and have successfully completed three 300-level courses in their major are eligible to apply to the program. Applicants must submit the following to the Graduate Admission office by April 1 (priority deadline): B.A./M.A. Combined Degree Program Application, official undergraduate transcript, answers to essay questions, writing sample (research paper), and two letters of recommendation from professors in the College of Communication.

During their senior year students complete 12 graduate credit hours of Health Communication coursework which will fulfill undergraduate communication electives and/or open electives. Students are strongly encouraged to take the HTHC core courses (HTHC 515, HTHC 516, HTHC 517) during the senior year. Students admitted to the program must earn a B or better in each of the three graduate courses they take as a senior. If a student fails to meet the GPA requirement, they will not be allowed to continue as a graduate student in the program.

Students can defer their graduate admission for one year. If students do not matriculate after completing their B.A. degrees or within the one year deferral period, the graduate courses taken as undergraduate students will no longer count towards the graduate degree and students must reapply for admission to the graduate program.

Journalism (MA)

Students with junior status who have earned a 3.25 GPA in Communication courses and 3.0 cumulative GPA are eligible to apply to the program. Applicants must submit the following to the Graduate Admission office by April 1 (priority deadline): B.A./M.A. Combined Degree Program Application, official undergraduate transcript, Statement of Purpose (750 words) explaining why the student is seeking admission to the program, writing sample or project that demonstrates the applicant’s ability in journalism, and two letters of recommendation from professors in the College of Communication.

During their senior year students complete 12 graduate credit hours of Journalism coursework which will fulfill undergraduate communication electives and/or open electives. Students admitted to the program must earn a B or better in each of the three graduate courses they take as a senior. If a student fails to meet the GPA requirement, they will not be allowed to continue as a graduate student in the program.

Students can defer their graduate admission for one year. If students do not matriculate after completing their B.A. degrees or within the one year deferral period, the graduate courses taken as undergraduate students will no longer count towards the graduate degree and students must reapply for admission to the graduate program.

Media Cinema Studies (MA)

Students with junior status who have earned a 3.5 GPA in Communication courses, have 3.0 cumulative GPA, and have successfully completed CMN 101, CMN 102 and CMN 103 are eligible to apply to the program. Applicants must submit the following to the Graduate Admission office by April 1 (priority deadline): B.A./M.A. Combined Degree Program Application, official undergraduate transcript, Statement of Purpose (750 words) explaining why the student is seeking admission to the program, writing sample (research paper that demonstrates the applicant's ability to synthesize and analyze scholarly work), and two letters of recommendation from professors in the College of Communication.

During their senior year students complete 12 graduate credit hours of Media and Cinema Studies coursework which will fulfill undergraduate communication electives and/or open electives. Students are strongly encouraged to take two of the MCS core courses (MCS 501, MCS 502, MCS 504) and one MCS elective. Students admitted to the program must earn a B or better in each of the three graduate courses they take as a senior. If a student fails to meet the GPA requirement, they will not be allowed to continue as a graduate student in the program.

Students can defer their graduate admission for one year. If students do not matriculate after completing their B.A. degrees or within the one year deferral period, the graduate courses taken as undergraduate students will no longer count towards the graduate degree and students must reapply for admission to the graduate program.

Organizational and Multicultural Communication (MA)

Students with junior status who have earned a 3.5 GPA in Communication courses, have 3.0 cumulative GPA, have successfully completed CMN 101, CMN 102 and CMN 103 and three 300-level Communication courses are eligible to apply to the program. Applicants must submit the following to the Graduate Admission office by April 1 (priority deadline): B.A./M.A. Combined Degree Program Application, official undergraduate transcript, answers to essay questions, writing sample (research paper), and two letters of recommendation from professors in the College of Communication.

During their senior year students complete 12 graduate credit hours of Communication coursework which will fulfill undergraduate communication electives and/or open electives. Students admitted to the program must earn a B or better in each of the three graduate courses they take as a senior. If a student fails to meet the GPA requirement, they will not be allowed to continue as a graduate student in the program.

Students can defer their graduate admission for one year. If students do not matriculate after completing their B.A. degrees or within the one year deferral period, the graduate courses taken as undergraduate students will no longer count towards the graduate degree and students must reapply for admission to the graduate program.

Relational Communication (MA)

Students with junior status who have earned a 3.5 GPA in Communication courses, have 3.0 cumulative GPA, and have successfully completed CMN 101, CMN 102and CMN 103 are eligible to apply to the program. Applicants must submit the following to the Graduate Admission office by April 1 (priority deadline): B.A./M.A. Combined Degree Program Application, official undergraduate transcript, Statement of Purpose (750 words) explaining why the student is seeking admission to the program, writing sample (research paper that demonstrates the applicant's ability to synthesize and analyze scholarly work), and two letters of recommendation from professors in the College of Communication.

During their senior year students complete 12 graduate credit hours of Relational Communication coursework which will fulfill undergraduate communication electives and/or open electives during the senior year. Students admitted to the program must earn a B or better in each of the three graduate courses they take as a senior. If a student fails to meet the GPA requirement, they will not be allowed to continue as a graduate student in the program.

Students can defer their graduate admission for one year. If students do not matriculate after completing their B.A. degrees or within the one year deferral period, the graduate courses taken as undergraduate students will no longer count towards the graduate degree and students must reapply for admission to the graduate program.

HTHC 515

INTRO TO HEALTH COMMUNICATION

Because of the increasing degree of health consciousness in our society, individuals not only interact more frequently with health care providers, but health care organizations play more active roles in their surrounding communities. In addition, health care cultures are changing. Health care organizations play active social and political roles when responding to national health issues or crises. Hence, it is important that we, as consumers of health care, understand the communication challenges that are inherent within health care organizations, and how those can impact the effectiveness of our communication as a participant in health care contexts.

HTHC 516

RESEARCH METHODS FOR HEALTH CARE PRACTITIONERS

This course focuses on health care methodologies relevant to health care administration: including a cross section of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Designing questionnaires and surveys, the analysis and presentation of survey data, interviewing strategies, the analysis and presentation of qualitative data. Students will also be provided with skilled technical writing assignments geared toward providing an understanding of how to most effectively present data within the contexts of reports, visuals for meeting or memoranda.

HTHC 517

HEALTH CARE LITERACY

The U.S. Department of Health and Human services included improved consumer health literacy as Objective 11-2, and identified health literacy as an important component of health communication, medical product safety and oral health. Health Literacy refers to obtaining, processing and understanding basic health information. This course examines how the consumer can be not only informed more effectively and efficiently, but also how health information should inform decision making in multiple health contexts.

CMN 101

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN COMMUNICATION

This course provides an introduction to the field of relational, group and organizational communication. Students become acquainted with the basic terms, concepts and theoretical perspectives used to examine communication in dyadic, group and organizational contexts.

CMN 102

INTRODUCTION TO MASS COMMUNICATION

This course offers students a broad overview of the mass media (print, film, video, recorded music, radio, television and the internet) with a particular focus on how these media impact our everyday lives. Students will develop critical frameworks for understanding how power operates across the media spheres of production, circulation, representation and reception. Attention is placed on how the social categories of race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, age and nationality inform each of these media spheres. The course also considers how recent developments in digital technologies, media convergence and globalization have transformed our media culture.

CMN 103

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Examines the role culture plays in interethnic and international communication. Explores differences and similarities in cultural values and communication behaviors between and among diverse cultures and develops intercultural competence. Critiques stereotypes and increases cultural sensitivity.

MCS 501

FILM AND MEDIA THEORY

This course will serve as a foundation for students in theories of film, television, and new media. An engagement with areas such as formal analysis, television and film spectatorship, authorship, television flow, and media specificity will provide both a brief historical framework for these disciplines, as well as a survey of major texts. Readings will include scholars/theorists such as Sergei Eisenstein, David Bordwell, Laura Mulvey, Horace Newcomb, Raymond Williams, Nick Browne, and Henry Jenkins. Formerly MCS 501 Introduction to Media Studies.

MCS 502

MEDIA AND CULTURAL STUDIES

This course provides students with a theoretical and methodological background in the interdisciplinary field of cultural studies, which considers media and culture as sites for the construction and contestant of race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and nation. The course provides a foundation in critical cultural studies, ideology critique, critical race and gender studies, transnational media studies and active audience studies.

MCS 504

HISTORIOGRAPHY AND RESEARCH

This course will offer critical perspectives and methods to film and media history and research. Areas of exploration will include how popular history and academic historiography interact, the way certain subjects and facts are emphasized over others, the different forms used to represent historical knowledge, and questions of history and memory. In addition to the assumptions, methods, and purposes of film/media histories, the course will also ask crucial questions regarding the nature of inquiry and the status of data and evidence. Students will learn how to address a specific research question through a variety of methodologies in a cogent and comprehensive manner. Students will also develop competency in writing a research proposal and using research tools such as Endnote and online journal databases.